Day 61: Monty Python’s Life of Brian (1979)

When the British comedy troupe Monty Python, made up of jokesters Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Terry Gilliam, Eric Idle, Terry Jones, and Michael Palin, decided to create a film parodying the biblical cinema epics of the 1950′s, they knew they’d get into trouble and, without a doubt, “Life of Brian,” certainly made them, in the eyes of the conservative public, “very naughty boys.” With an unabashed sense of bad taste, this legendary comedic crew shocked the world, who always takes itself very seriously, with a film that didn’t at all and this tale on the life of a mistaken Messiah would be battled all the way to the theater and back.

In Judea, on Saturday afternoon 33  A.D. around tea time, the life of Brian Cohen (Graham Chapman), a simple seller of snacks at the local Coliseum, is changed forever when he is mistaken by a crowd as the Messiah- King of the Jews. Though he’s part Roman and another local named Jesus seems for more qualified for the title, this mob of wanting believers see little old Brian as the answer to their prayers and he just doesn’t know what to think of it. Even his oen mother (director Terry Jones) doesn’t see him as anything special. How is he supposed to lead a new Jerusalem?

But, as this goes on, Brian also joins up with the Peoples’ Front of Judea (NOT the Judean Peoples’ Front!), one of many separatist movements seeking to destroy the Romans, but who spend most of their time bickering amongst each other, and, while on a special mission, he is captured and brought before Pontius Pilate (Michael Palin), who delivers him with a sentence of death by crucifixion. Out of luck and carrying his cross, Brian will have to find the inner strength needed to prevail or give up and, quiet literally, face the music.

Even before it’s filming, “Life of Brian” was a controversial film that many studios didn’t want to touch. Though it at first had a production company in EMI Films, along with a four million dollar budget and sets from the television miniseries “Jesus of Nazareth,” the British company backed away after the Python’s film plot got the attention of religious groups and already had them up in arms. Luckily, former Beatle George Harrison stepped in to help his mates and fit the bill, starting the now famous production company “Handmade Films,” producers of such later works as “Time Bandits” and “Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels.”

Upon its release, “Life of Brian” did receive the criticism that EMI had once feared and, while the general public seemed to love it, religious organizations went bananas. Though the Python’s argued that the film was not an attack on faith but really a jab at religious groups who seem to encourage close mindedness in their flocks, the conservative movement, both in England and the United States, banned it outright and talked about its blasphemous quality without ever seeing the film for themselves. In the U.S., Catholic groups wanted attendance to the picture to be deemed a sin and the Citizens Against Blasphemy even tried to prosecute the picture. In England, the Festival of Light group lobbied successfully to have many towns give the film an X-rating so impressionable youngsters couldn’t be influenced and, in one instance, which is both hilarious and sad all at the same time, a British region imposed a ban even though they hadn’t a single movie theater in their area.

But, even with a seething hatred for “Life of Brian” apparent in conservative circles, the publicity they gave the film with their censoring only helped it to become a rousing success, both financially and critically. To this day it is considered by many to be the Python’s greatest cinematic achievement and also a precursor to other religious hysteria towards film. For, as church groups and conservative movements continue to made fools of themselves, banning in the past such works as “The Last Temptation of Christ” and “The Di Vinci Code,” “Life of Brian’s” message of religiosity and group think taking precedence over Christ’s true reason for coming to Earth seems more relavant now than ever.

To learn more about “Life of Brian,” check out Criterion’s page here.

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